Today's Non-News: trucking & texting don't mix

Um...duh!

Someone thought it would be money well spent to do a study on how dangerous texting is while driving, concluding its dangerous because people look at their phones while texting vs the road.

Are you kidding me?

A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute showed that truckers who text while driving are 23 times more likely to crash or get into a near-wreck than an undistracted driver, while car drivers face the greatest danger when dialing their cell phones.

I might be way off here, but isn't a car easier to control than an 8,000 lb 18-wheel truck?

When dialing, the chance of an accident for a truck driver is 5.9 times more likely vs 2.8 times more likely for a car driver, the study found. If a trucker reaches for an electronic device, the crash risk is 6.7 times as high, while the risk for a car driver is 1.4 times as high. Truckers only fared better while talking or listening on a cell phone, with the increased risk one time more likely compared with 1.3 times for a car driver.

...blah, blah...yada, yada, yada...

Here's the thing: what difference does it make if it's 5.9 or 2.8 or 6.7 times more likely to have an accident while fucking around with a cellphone?

The point is that the likelihood of having an accident is higher when we're dialing, texting or doing anything else that takes our eyes off the road.

See how I just did that without a study?

____________________________________________

Following is an excerpt from the CNN report on the subject:

"Text messaging, as you can imagine, if you're engaged in a text message it draws your eyes away from the forward roadway," Rich Hanowski, director of the transportation institute's Center for Truck and Bus Safety, told CNN Tuesday. The study was based on research from 2004 to 2007, he said.

"From the study that we did, we found that it was almost five seconds out of a six-second window that we were looking at that the driver's eyes were off the forward roadway, so that's a tremendous amount of time driving at highway speeds and a lot of opportunity in that period of time to get into trouble."

In 4.6 seconds at 55 mph, a driver could travel the length of a football field.

With regards to texting, Hanowski said "it's really kind of a no-brainer" (exactly my point). "And I should point out we're scientists, we're not legislators, but when you see these kind of findings with regard to this level of risk, texting certainly should be banned. There's just no question; there's no redeeming factors associated with why a driver would be able to text and drive."

Source: CNN
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Kris Allen shocked he won American Idol

Kris Allen was shocked (and he wasn't alone) when he heard he was the new American Idol.
Photo by Kevin Winter, Getty Images for Fox

Did cheating play a part in who won American Idol last week?

The New York Times reported Wednesday that AT&T might have swayed American Idol finale results by providing cellphones for free texting and lessons in lessons in casting blocks of votes at two parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, 23, who was the winner last week.

At this time, it appears that no such "power texting" parties were thrown for runner-up Adam Lambert, 27, who was expected to be the winner by a landslide, the NYTs reported.

AT&T's cellphone network is the only one that can be used to cast American Idol votes via text messages.

“In Arkansas, we were invited to attend the local watch parties organized by the community," a spokesman for AT&T said in a statement Tuesday according to the NYTs report. "A few local employees brought a small number of demo phones with them and provided texting tutorials to those who were interested.”

Let's see. You're a huge company that sponsors a show that rides on votes, many of which are made via texting on your network. You're "invited" to "parties" at one of the two finalists' towns....and you go. Not only do you go, but you provide--yes, you, because your employees do not own the demo phones--a "small number" (how many is "small") of phones and texting tutorials "to those who were interested."

Are you kidding me? These so-called tutorials showed users how to send 10 or more texts by pressing a single button. And power-texts can influence voting results in ways single texts and phone calls can't.

And what about AI rules? At the end of each show, a statement on the screen warns that blocks of votes cast using “technical enhancements” that unfairly influence the outcome of voting can be thrown out. So, were they? Did Fox disqualify the power-texted votes?

According to the NYTs report Fox Broadcasting has declined to comment on the matter, but I doubt Fox will remain quiet for long if these allegations are true.

News of the voting support were first reported last week in an article in The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, the NYTs reported.

UPDATE:

Fox and the show's producers issued a statement late Wednesday reaffirming Allen's victory.

"The results of this competition are fair, accurate and verified," Fox said. "Kris Allen is, without a doubt, the American Idol. We have an independent third-party monitoring procedure in place to ensure the integrity of the voting process. In no way did any individuals unfairly influence the outcome of the competition."

Uh...alrighty then.

In its own statement, AT&T said that "going forward, we will make sure our employees understand our sponsorship celebrates the competition, not individual contestants. That said, it's quite a leap to suggest that a few individuals could have impacted the final results."

My Call...though I'm probably wrong

How else could Kris Allen win American Idol? Don't get me wrong--guitar and piano-playing Allen is OK, but that's it, just OK. Glam rocker Adam Lambert, on the other hand, showed up on that stage week after week looking like, singing like and performing like a superstar. If that's not an American Idol as per the show's own standards, then no one is, and Fox might as well rename the show to American Prom King or Queen.

My theory has been that textaholics (whose affliction is worse the younger they are) were responsible for the results. Cute-boy Allen became the favorite among prepubescent and pubescent girls since the first week, when the 13 finalists were being chosen. And those girls are faithful to their imaginary lovers.

So it was no surprise, though it was frustrating, that Allen sailed through week after week, regardless of his performances (which got better with time but which was not great in the beginning), while Adam ended up in the bottom two or three several times.

But to actually win the show? That's just nuts...or tough luck for Glambert.

No wonder nationwide SAT scores are dropping. This country needs a texting intervention, if you ask me.

Source: The New York Times
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved